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Marketing
Around The Vineyard

Websites Are a Virtual “Garden”

By: Susan DeMatei
I was reading an article about spring gardening ground style). With each new image you add, you

tasks, and they were suggesting that spring
will want to add alternative text to remain ADA
was a great time for maintenance. The types of Compliant. This addition also benefits you from an
things recommended, such as cleaning and sharp- SEO lens.
ening tools, checking bulbs and seeds for mois-
ture or mold, mulching existing flower beds, and
planning for new ones, all made sense and almost
inspired me enough to get off the warm couch and
go out to my shed to investigate. But, because I’m a
nerd, my mind immediately followed the theme to
a digital correlation.

Websites are a virtual “garden.” Their goal is to
appeal to customers, draw them in and create
an inviting setting so they may stay awhile. We
design new sections within them, like adding blogs
or recipes, we plant new products and SKUs and
prune old ones no longer available. Sometimes we
get tired of the entire thing and change the color
scheme and layout with new pictures or templates.
Like a garden, we should tend to our websites
because if we let them sit over time, their ability to
function and attract customers dissipate. However,
regular website maintenance is something that
many don’t realize is necessary. So, for this week’s In this example, even though the picture is called
blog, here is a list of periodic maintenance tasks to “mondavi-family-04.jpg”, the website developer has
help you keep your website in full bloom. given the picture an alt name of “Cesare and Rosa
stading picture” to go along with the text. Helpful,
ADA Compliance: We didn’t just start with this but check your spelling in tags, too!
because it fits alphabetically – but you can remem-
ber it that way. It’s crucial to ensure that your web- Text Contrast: Anytime your copy or text has been
site abides by ADA Compliance guidelines because adjusted, it’s essential to make sure that the char-
of possible hefty fines, potential lawsuits, and these acters are easy to read and not impeded by back-
accessibility enhancements open your website to ground images that may become unclear or hard to
more potential consumers. see.

Things to ensure to check each month to remain Links: Any new links that you create or add also
ADA Compliant are: need to contain clear relevant text. A URL with
a mess of unfriendly letters and code can make
Image Alternative Text: Every image you add to you non-compliant—for example, https://www.
your website should have good alternative text. wineglassmarketing.com/Services/Social-Media-
Alternative, or “alt” text, is a description of the Marketing as opposed to https://www.wineglass-
image in the code that Google and screen readers marketing.com/Services/345j345jk345b34fsd0v.
for the blind can read. This code should describe Always try your best to have a friendly marketing
what your image portrays, such as “Customers URL that denotes what page they are on.
enjoying a tasting in the tasting room.” The only
exception is if an image is entirely decorative (such SEO Improvements: You might think that most
as a twirly graphic forming a text break or a back- website building systems handle this for you auto-

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